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How to recognize PLA from ABS ???

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I bought 2 rolls of PLA (?) from an italian source on ebay. everything went fine but now I'm trying it and I can smell something different in the air, somethind like a lightly sweet smell. my usual PLA (from ultimaker or faberdashery) never smelled like this.

I'm printing an 'old' PLA gcode and I didn't change temperature or other. first lyer seems stictching well on usual cold bed with tape, but...

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If you printed it at 210C then it's not ABS. Also, ABS gives off toxic fumes, while PLA fumes are harmless. And, if I got it right, ABS should be a bit more flexible then PLA. And ABS loses 15% of it's volume after heating, so you would be extruding to little material then.

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To test it without printing you can simply start bending it sharply at random points. PLA will snap, ABS will not.

The "ABS fix kit" that followed with the Ultimaker snapped very easily when my 3 year old kid wanted to take a look at what I had lying around my Ultimaker. So ABS does snap easilly, or my 3 year old is stronger than you :lol: Just kidding :-) ...you probably have a better quality batch ;-)

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Not sure what the "ABS fix kit" is but I'm not surprised the wee one managed to break it. Kids are incredible that way, they will find the point of failure faster than any engineer ever could.

Also, I might've been a bit unclear what I meant with what I said earlier. I was speaking more in terms of mode of failure. Generally when you bend ABS to the breaking point it'll bend but still stay together. PLA on the other hand tends to fail by snapping apart. In other words PLA tends to be harder than ABS.

Of course we all know that different brands/colours/etc behave a bit differently but oh well. Here's a couple of vids that show what I mean:

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The "ABS fix kit" is just a short piece (1 m) of ABS intended to be extruded for the purpose of stopping any leakage from the nozzle. If you use nothing but PLA on the Ultimaker it will most likely leak a lot.

Also, I might've been a bit unclear what I meant with what I said earlier. I was speaking more in terms of mode of failure. Generally when you bend ABS to the breaking point it'll bend but still stay together. PLA on the other hand tends to fail by snapping apart. In other words PLA tends to be harder than ABS.

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The "ABS fix kit" is just a short piece (1 m) of ABS intended to be extruded for the purpose of stopping any leakage from the nozzle. If you use nothing but PLA on the Ultimaker it will most likely leak a lot.

Leak how? I had the kit but didn't use it, and I only extrude PLA. Is there something I should be watching for? Or should I just extrude the ABS now?

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The "ABS fix kit" is just a short piece (1 m) of ABS intended to be extruded for the purpose of stopping any leakage from the nozzle. If you use nothing but PLA on the Ultimaker it will most likely leak a lot.

Leak how? I had the kit but didn't use it, and I only extrude PLA. Is there something I should be watching for? Or should I just extrude the ABS now?

The "leak is the dreaded PLA plug that forms when there is a gap between the bowden and the brass tube, and the PLA can bond with the PEEK. printing some ABS while that section is still free of any PLA helps to seal it off, at least temporarily.

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I did not have a problem with any leakage between the bowden and the brass tube, my leakage was PLA flowing on the outside of the nozzle dripping on to the print and ruining it. Extruding the ABS stopped that leakage; but I guess the ABS stops any leakage no matter where it is due to its viscosity and higher melting point...